Teen who protested omission of racy yearbook photo gets arrested

A yearbook committee at a Durango, Colo., high school refused to run this photo of Sydney Spies. (Facebook)

Earlier this year, a provocative image of 18-year-old Sydney Spies appeared on news sites throughout the world.

The teen from Durango, Colo., attracted media attention because she made a fuss when her high school yearbook committee refused to run the professional modeling shot of her posing provocatively, wearing a flirty yellow miniskirt and only a shawl across her chest.

Sydney and her mother, Miki Spies, appeared on NBC’s Today Show and told Matt Lauer about shared the teen’s dreams of becoming a celebrity. Soon after the appearance Sydney landed a small role in the SyFy channel movieAmerican Horror House that will air on Halloween.

Now, Sydney and Miki are back in the news. The mother and daughter threw a keg party and behaved badly when the police arrived.

At Miki’s home, police walked into a rager and the police report descriptions make it sound like a scene out of an American Pie movie. Red cups of beer and empty bottles were strewn about the home, and drunken teens were jumping over a chain link fence in the backyard to escape the cops, according to the Durango Herald.

Miki refused to give her name and tried to save the party-goers from the police by corraling them into her house–and then the 45-year-old mother “broke into a full sprint,” ran into her bedroom and tried to slam the door. She was finally arrested after putting up a brief fight, the Durango Herald reports.

Miki and Sydney Spies are back in the news. This time it’s for behaving badly at a keg party. (Durango Police Department)

Sydney’s story isn’t any prettier. The teen body-blocked a police officer who was trying to enter her mom’s house, resisted being handcuffed and put in a police car and nearly kicked an officer in the groin. And she continued to fight until the bitter end: In the car, she “unbuckled her seat belt and attempted to jump out,” according to the Durango Herald.

Durango Police arrested both Sydney and Miki and they were later released on bail on Monday. This is the second time Miki has been arrested.